Once again, the USA is #2 to their Israeli masters.
Readit Newsneycoda commented on Show HN: Browser MCP – Automate your browser using Cursor, Claude, VS Code browsermcp.io/... · Posted by u/namuorg
Too many serifs, didn't read.
neycoda commented on How to Use Em Dashes (–), En Dashes (–), and Hyphens (-) merriam-webster.com/gramm... · Posted by u/Stratoscope
Here's an easy, if not always precise way to remember:
* Hyphens connect things, such as compound words: double-decker, cut-and-dried, 212-555-5555.
* EN dashes make a range between things: Boston–San Francisco flight, 10–20 years: both connect not only the endpoints, but define that all the space between is included. (Compare the last usage with the phone number example under Hyphens.)
* EM dashes break things, such as sentences or thoughts: 'What the—!'; A paragraph should express one idea—but rules are made to be broken.
Unicode has the original ASCII hyphen-minus (U+002d), as well as a dedicated hyphen (U+2010), other functional hyphens such as soft and non-breaking hyphens, and a dedicated minus sign (U+2212), and some variations of minus such as subscript, superscript, etc.
There's also the figure dash "‒" (U+2012), essentally a hyphen-minus that's the same width as numbers and used aesthetically for typsetting, afaik. And don't overlook two-em-dashes "⸺" and three-em-dashes "⸻" and horizontal bars "―", the latter used like quotation marks!
Bring in fonts that don't distinguishes these different characters well and now it's hard to tell how messy this has become.
neycoda commented on The average college student today hilariusbookbinder.substa... · Posted by u/Jyaif
If you can bear with me while i attempt a synthesis here, I think this one line captures basically the entire dynamic, but the author seems to seriously underweight its explanatory value.
> The average student has seen college as basically transactional for as long as I’ve been doing this
It is a transaction. The number of students there because they want to learn a subject rounds to zero. A college degree (especially from good old State U) serves first and foremost as a white-collar job permit. The students (or their parents/lender/state) are purchasing the permit from the institution. They are the customer. Anything you, the employee, ask of them beyond the minimum to hold up the fig leaf is a waste of the students' time (from their perspective) and a violation of the implied terms of this transaction.
And now the white-collar jobs are being replaced by vibe AI app-making. It seems most of college now isn't for most people. Maybe the kids can save their money and just make vibe apps.
neycoda commented on The average college student today hilariusbookbinder.substa... · Posted by u/Jyaif
"all we’re doing is depriving the good students of an education." Umm, no, the students are depriving themselves by being addicted to their phones and online gambling.
The culture is burning. This is how it topples. Through smartphone addiction, gambling, and lack of reading meaningful books.
Shady? Scammy. PayPal defends it.
neycoda commented on France rejects backdoor mandate eff.org/deeplinks/2025/03... · Posted by u/hn_acker
Just like for other big challenges like biodiversity and climate change, it feels like it often boils down to the politicians just not understanding enough to take rational decisions. Of course they can't all have a PhD in cryptography, but they should also not have no clue at all.
Over an over again, politicians are asking for backdoors. To me it just proves that they don't understand the very basic of how encryption works.
Especially these days in Europe, it seems completely insane: it is already a problem that most companies use US services, given that the US have become hostile to Europe. The sane way to go is to try to get better privacy for European companies/people, not worse. Adding backdoors just makes it easier for adversaries to access private data.
The adversary is often the person wanting the backdoor.
neycoda commented on France rejects backdoor mandate eff.org/deeplinks/2025/03... · Posted by u/hn_acker
Backdoors are too much of a security risk for the people. The solution is to provide the data upon a search warrant from a judge who determines a reason for suspicion of a crime. That's it. The government pushing for more than that is becoming a new security problem.
Most of the people in the 'free world' goes on mainstream media, like facebook to get their news. These companies are enticed to 'suck up' to the government because at the end they are business, they need to be in good term with ruling class.
you end up with most media complying with the official story pushed by government and friends, and most people believing that because no one has the time to fact check everything.
One could argue that the difference with russia is that someone can actually look for real information, but even in russia people have access to vpn to bypass the censorship.
Another difference would be that you are allowed to express your opinion, whereas in russia you would be put to jail, that's true but only in a very limited way. Since everyone goes on mainstream media and they enforce the government narrative, you can't speak there. you are merely allowed to speak out in your little corner out of reach to anyone, and even then since most people believe the government propaganda, your arguments won't be heard at all.
The more i think about it, the less difference i see.